
Class ^tAa 



Book .L ^ ^ 




'X-^J^^^Z.^-^^^ 



iHaja!ja!acl)U0ctt0 i^i^torical ^ocict^* 



MEMOIR 



HON. JOHN H. CLIFFORD, LL.D. 



BY 



ERT C/W 



ROBERT C. ^VINTHROP. 



M i: ]M O 1 R 



HON. JOHN H. CLIM'OUI), LI>.I). 



I'REl-.VllEn A(iREK.VI(LY TO A RESOLUTION 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



BY 

v/ 
ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 



rUESIDENT. 




i .. ... 



li O S T O N : 
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

1877. 



CC3 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



At the stated niontlily meeting of this Society, held 
at their rooms on Thursday, Jan. 13, 1876, the Presi- 
dent, — Hon. Eobert C. Winthrop, — announced the 
death of Ex-Governor Cliffokd, a Resident Member of 
the Society, as follows : — 

It is not, gentlemen, without a deep sense of personal loss, 
that I announce the death of the Hon. John H. Clifford, 
who has been one of the Resident Members of this Society 
for more than twenty years. 

It may not be forgotten that I mentioned, at our last 
monthly meeting, that he had promised to be with us on that 
occasion, to pay a tribute to his venerable friend. Judge Met- 
calf. He had gone, however, a fortnight before, — soon after 
his arrival from Europe, — to pass Thanksgiving Day at liis 
old home in New Bedford ; and, while there, he was struck 
with sudden and serious illness. Under the care of skilful 
physicians, and of a devoted family, his alarming symptoms 
were alleviated ; and there was the best reason for hoping 
that he would soon be able to resume liis winter residence in 
Boston, and to enter anew upon his chosen pui-suits. But 
New Year's Day was destined to be the last day of liis earthly 

1 



life; and, before another morning dawned, the mysterious 
call had come, and his spirit returned, without a struggle, to 
God who gave it. 

In company with several of our associates, I attended his 
funeral at New Bedford on Thursday last, where the presence 
of a great throng of his friends and fellow-citizens attested 
the respect and affection in which he was held by all who 
knew him. 

It is more than forty years since we entered the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, as young men, together, and took an 
early fancy for each other, which ripened into a life-long 
friendship. During that protracted period, there have been 
but few months, — I might almost say but few weeks, — in 
which we have not held more or less of communication, 
either personally or by correspondence. I can recall no friend 
with whom I have ever been on the same footing of intimacy 
for so long a time, except the late excellent John Pendleton 
Kennedy of Baltimore. 

We were long associated in the friendship and confidence 
of Edward Everett. We were more recently associated in 
the friendship and confidence of George Peabody ; and in the 
administration of one of his most interesting and important 
trusts. 

In view of these intimate relations, I have willingly acceded 
to the request of the Council, that I would take it upon 
myself to prepare hereafter a brief Memoir of him, according 
to usage, for the next volume of our Proceedings. I forbear, 
therefore, at present, from any attempt to delineate his char- 
acter or career. 

There are those with us here, this morning, who have 
known him in youth and in manhood ; at his own University 
in Providence, and in his associations with our University at 
Cambridge ; at the Bar, in the Legislative Halls, as Attorney- 
General, and as Governor of Massachusetts, as well as in his 
relations to the other public institutions with which he was 



connocted. I Icavr it to them to bear their testimony to his 
abilities, his iiscfiibicss, and liis virtue's. It is enougli for mo 
to say on tliis occasion, as I sincerely can say, — 

" Multis illo bonis Uobilis occidit, 
Nulli flebilior (luam iiiihi." 

I am authorized by the Council to submit tlic following 
Resolutions : — 

Jiesolred, That tills Society has learned with sincere sorrow the 
death of tlieir distinguished associate, the Hon. John Hknky Clif- 
ford, of New Bedford, whose public services as a member of both 
branches of the Legislature, as Attorney-General, and as Governor of 
Massachusetts, and whose abilities and virtues as a man, had won 
for him our warm respect and regard. 

Jicsolrecl, That the President be requested to prepare the custo- 
mary Memoir. 

After remarks by President Eliot, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, Hon. B. F. Thomas, and Winslow Wakuex, 
Esq., and the reading of letters of regret and sympathy 
from Ex-Governor Emory Washburn, and Ex-Chief 
Justice BiGELOW, the Resolutions were unanimously 
adopted. 

Charles Deane, 

Recording Secretary. 



MEMOIR. 



In the beautiful town of New Bedford, long. since incor- 
porated as a city, there might have been found, some thirty 
or forty years ago, as charming a group of choice spirits as 
could be gathered anywhere within the limits of Massachu- 
setts. Among them was Ephraim Peabody, the pastor of the 
Unitarian parish of the town, afterwards the rector of King's 
Cliapcl in Boston ; wise, accomplished, amiable, eloquent, 
beloved by all who knew him. Among them was Charles 
Henry Warren, widely known afterwards as Judge Warren, 
whose^sparkling wit, and racy anecdote, and keen irony were 
the delight of every circle in which he moved. Among them 
was William W. Swain, whose jurisdiction over " Naushon " 
had won for him the fiimiliar sobriquet of " Governor," and 
whose great heart and genial hospitality had made willing 
subjects for him far beyond the narrow domain of the Eliza- 
beth Islands. These and others of that little group have 
passed away. At least one of them, however, is still living, 
— the venerable Joseph Grinncll, — born before any of them, 
and now surviving them all ; who, after many years of valu- 
able public service in the Congress of the United States, is 
to-day, in his eighty-ninth year, conducting successfully and 



8 

•vigorously a great manufacturing establishment, and who, 
by his firmness and discretion, has just succeeded in putting 
down a formidable strike of its workmen. 

But of this little circle of choice spirits in New Bedford, 
into which I was so often admitted as a guest on occasional 
■visits from Boston or Washington, the subject of this Me- 
moir was the central figure. Younger than any of his 
associates ; with less accomplishment, perhaps, than one ; with 
less wit, perhaps, than another ; with not more of heart or 
head than a third or fourth of them, — he had yet a combination 
of qualities, intellectual, moral, and social, which gave him 
an easy lead, and secured for him a read^'- following. No one, 
I think, could spend a day in New Bedford, at that period, 
without feeling that the active, moving spirit of its social 
and intellectual life was John Henry Cliffoed. Thus early 
— for he was then hardly more than thirty years of age — did 
he exhibit that practical tact, that genial disposition, that 
magnetic temper, which always gave him one of the foremost 
places among those with whom he was associated, whether in 
public or in private life. Of great executive ability, and 
with a peculiar faculty of organization, he was at least the 
prompter and the manager of scenes, in which he may not 
have assumed or aspired to play the first part. He would, 
indeed, have counted himself at that time the humblest of 
that little group ; but not the less did his earnest nature im- 
part animation and inspiration to them all. 

Governor Clifford, hoAvever, — for by that title he will be 
most readily remembered, — was not a native of New Bed- 
ford, nor of Massachusetts. He was born in Providence, 
Rhode Island, on the 16th of January, 1809, and continued 
to reside there with his parents until he had completed his 
school and college education. It was only after he had gone 
through his four years' course and taken his degree, as 
Bachelor of Arts, in 1827, at Brown University, that he left 
his parental home and native State. He then entered on the 



9 

study of law with Timothy Cr- Coflin, Esq., of New Hcdford, 
and sul)st'([uently studied with the hitc Jud^a! Thciou Mct- 
calf at Dedhaiu, Massachusetts. In 1830 he was admitted to 
the Bar of the county of Bristol, having in the same year 
received his degree of Master of Ai-ts at Brown, when he 
delivered an oratiiui on " the Perils of Professional Life." 
Thenceforth he was to confront those perils himself, in the 
daily practice of his chosen profession. lie estahlished him- 
self as a lawyer in New Bedford, and two years afterwards 
gcave " a hostage to fortune," and left no further doubt 
where his permanent home was to be fixed. On the IGth of 
January, 1832, his twenty-third birthday, he married Sarah 
Parker Allen, daughter of William Howland Allen, Esq., and 
granddaughter of the Hon. John Avery Parker, of New Bed- 
ford ; and from that da}' to his death he resided nowhere else. 

Three years afterward, in 1835, he took his seat in the 
Legislature of ^Massachusetts, as a representative from New 
Bedford. There I met him for the first time ; and from that 
association resulted a friendship and an intimacy which ended 
only with his life. It was the year of the Revision of the 
Statutes of the Commonwealth, and he did good and faithful 
service on the large committee which had that subject in 
charge. In 183G he became one of the aides-de-camp of 
Governor Everett, and retained that position nntil, by a 
single vote out of a hundred thousand votes, Mr. Everett's 
chief magistracy was brought to a close in 1840. 

Before Mr. Everett went out of office, however, — in 1830, 
— he had conferred upon Colonel Clifford, in whom he had 
the highest confidence, the appointment of District Attorney 
for the Southein District of Massachusetts ; an oflice in which 
he served the Commonwealth assiduously and successfully for 
nearly ten years. 

Meantime, in 1845, the county of P>ristol had elected him 
a member of the Senate of Massacliusetts, where he gave 
renewed evidence of his ability and accomplishments as a 



10 

debater and a legislator. But his taste for legal practice 
predominated over all others, and in 1849 he entered upon 
the duties of an office which was to be the field of his longest 
and most distinguished public service. In that year he re- 
ceived from Governor Briggs the appointment of Attorney- 
General of the State. 

Early in the following year it fell to his lot to conduct a 
memorable trial, with which his name will be always most 
prominently and honorably associated. No trial in the his- 
tory of our country for many generations, if ever, has excited 
a deeper interest, or challenged a more anxious and critical 
attention, than that of Professor John W. Webster for the 
murder of Dr. George Parkman. Even to this day, the cir- 
cumstances of the crime and the proceedings to which it gave 
occasion, as contained in the detailed report prepared and 
published by our associate member, Mr. George Bemis, the 
junior counsel for the Commonwealth, have the attraction and 
fascination of some tragic drama. The responsibility and the 
labor which it threw upon the Attorney-General were of the 
most arduous character; and it is enough to say of the man- 
ner in which they were met, that when the verdict was 
obtained, and the full details of evidence and argument were 
published to the world, he had earned a reputation for ability 
and force, as well as for discretion and fairness, as a prose- 
cuting officer, which was recognized . far bej^ond the limits of 
New England. 

Few things, if any thing, could have gratified him more 
than the following passage from an article in " Blackwood's 
Magazine " for June of that year, on " Modern State Trials," 
— being one of a series of articles from the pen of the eminent 
barrister, Samuel Warren,* the author of the " Diary of a 
Physician," and of " Ten Thousand a iTear " : — 



* The death of Samuel Warren, Q. C, on the 29th of July, is announced 
from England, while these pages are going through the press. 



11 

" It was our iiitciitioii to Iiavc iiirlmliMl in this papor a skolcli of a 
great Aiiu'ricau trial lor luiinlir, — tliat of tlw; latti Professor \Vfl»- 
ster for the murder of I )r. Tarkuiau ; a fearful occurrouce ; a black 
and tlisnial trai^edy frouj l»ei;inuini; to end; exiiihititiif most remarkai)le 
indications, as it appears to us, of the overruling I'rovidiMiee, which 
sometimes sees lit to allow its a;^eney in human allairs to Ijeeomo visi- 
ble to us. We have, however, now concluded the present scries ; but 
it is not impossible that we may take an early opportunity of glvinjj 
some account of this extraordinary case, of which, «;ven whih; we are 
writing, a report has been courteously transmitted to us from America. 
All we shall at present say on the subject is, that the reply of Mr. 
Clifford for the prosecution cannot be excelled in close and conclusivo 
reasoning, conveyed in language e(pially elegant and forcible. Its 
effect, as a demonstration of the guilt of the accused, is fearful." 

Tlie fi)llo\viiig" letter, dated tlie diiy after tlie sentence liad 
been pronounced, affords a striking view of his own impres- 
sions at the result: — 

"New Bedford, April 2, 1850. 

" jMy dkau "NViNTnuoi^ — The long agony is over, and I am once 
more l)y my own hearthstone, trying to restore the equilibrium which 
two weeks' straining of my entire being had deranged and disturbed. 
I have never been before, and can never be again, kept up to such an 
extreme tension ; but in looking back, and steridy scrutinizing my 
whole course from the commencement of my connection with the case 
to its close, I amnot lind any cause of self-reproach. God knows I 
liave compassionated the poor criminal ; and my heart has l)led for his 
family almost as if they were my own. 

" Personally, I cannot help feeling this trial to have been a great 
crisis in my life. A failure in it would have been fatal; a moderate 
deoree of success would have been scarcely less unfortiniate : and I fer- 
vently thank the Good Being who has guided and strengthened and 
sustained me, for the eminent success which the assurances that I have 
received from all (piarters leave me not at liberty to doubt my having 
achieved. ... I am g<jiug to New York this week with my wife, and 
it is not impossible that I may run on and pass a day with you in 
Washington. 

" Yours ever, 

"J. II. Cl.llKoKO." 

2 



12 

In the autumn of 1852, the convention of the Whig Party 
of Massachusetts nominated Attorney-General Clifford for 
Governor of the State. He accepted the nomination with 
reluctance ; and, though he received nearly twenty-five thou- 
sand more votes than either of the opposing candidates, 
he was not elected by the people. The plurality sj^stem had 
not 3^et been adopted, and the Constitution of the State at 
that time required for an election an absolute majority of all 
the votes cast by the people. On the meeting of the Legis- 
lature, however, he was chosen by the votes of the two 
branches ; and was inaugurated as Governor of Massachu- 
setts on the 14th of January, 1853. 

In his Inaugural Address he dwelt strongly on " the ten- 
dency to an excess of legislation," and gave evidence of his 
adherence to the principles of the old Whig Party, of which 
he had been the candidate, by saying : " It seems to me, 
therefore, that the wise moderation which avoids both the ex- 
tremes, — of a blind conservatism which clings to every thing 
that is established, because it is old, and the reckless and 
impatient radicalism which is ready to adopt every new pro- 
ject or theory, merely because it is new, — a moderation 
which consults that vital element in every well-governed 
community, the adaptation of an established system of laws 
to the usages and habits of the people, — is one of the safest 
guides in j)ractical and beneficent legislation." " In all 
matters of civil government," he added, " the Law is our only 
sovereign. The loyalty, which in other countries is rendered 
to the mere accident of birth, is here due to that invisible 
but omnipresent power which we have voluntarily enthroned 
and established, for our protection and guidance, under the 
majestic name of Law." 

Governor Clifford discharged the duties of the chief magis- 
tracy with great fidelity and dignity, and it was only for liim 
to say whether he should remain in the office for a second 
year. But his interest in his profession determined him to 



13 

douline a rcnoniination ; aiul on lliu elocliou of Govcnior 
Enioiv Washl)uni, as his successor, he was at o!ice called on 
by him to resume his place as Attorney-General (»!' tlu; Com- 
monwealth. 1 lu continued to hold that oflice, — by executive 
aiipointment for one year, by legislative election for another, 
and again, for a third, by the choice of the people of the State, 
— until 185S. lie li;i(l tlius served the Commonwealth as its 
highest law ollicer for a full term of seven years in all ; and 
in that capacity had certainly rendered his best i)ublic service, 
and acquired his greatest public distinction. 

In retiring fuially from this position he did not abandon 
his professional labors, but was frequently to be found in the 
highest courts of the Commonwealth and of the Nation, in 
the argument of important cases. During the terrible Civil 
War, which soon afterwards afflicted the country, he omitted 
no efforts in his power to sustain the cause of the Union 
according to the convictions of his own conscience. More 
than once he was summoned to Washington to hold council 
with Cabinet officers, in regard to measures in contemplation. 
At home, too, he spared neither time nor money in encourag- 
ing the soldiers who went out from his own city or county. 
In 1862 he accepted an election to the State Senate, and was 
at once chosen president of that bodj^ in that capacity ren- 
dering conspicuous service to the Commonwealth at the most 
critical period of the War. In 1868 he was one of the elec- 
tors at large, and united in giving the vote of Massachusetts 
to President Grant. 

In the previous year, however, — 1867, — he had entered 
upon a line of life which was finally to separate him from 
further professional or political service, and to confine him 
to the routine of practical business. Assuming the charge 
of the Boston and Providence Railroad Corporation, as its 
president, he devoted himself to its affairs with all his accus- 
tomed earnestness and energy. Under his auspices the new 
and spacious Station of that railroad was erected iu Boston, 



14 

which will always be a monument of liis administration ; and 
in which, within a few months of his death, he gave, as we 
shall presently see, so memorable a manifestation of the spirit 
in which that administration had been conducted. 

Meantime he had not allowed the engrossments of practical 
business to cut him off wholly from other interests and asso- 
ciations. He was a member of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences. He was a member of our own Society, 
and occasionally took part in our proceedings. His tribute 
to his old commander-in-chief, Edward Everett, was among 
the most felicitous utterances of our Special Meeting on the 
occasion of his death. But he rendered larger services to 
Harvard University at Cambridge, of which he was for many 
years one of the Overseers, and repeatedly the President of 
that Board. He had been called on, while Governor, to per- 
form a prominent part at tlie inauguration of the late Rev. 
Dr. Walker, as President of the University, on the 2-J:th of 
May, 1853 ; and a sufficient testimony to the impressive char- 
acter of his Address on that occasion may be found in the 
following sentence of President Walker's reply : " I have 
listened — we all have listened — to what your Excellency 
has said, with such just and fervid eloquence, of the dignity 
and responsibilities of the teacher ; of the need there is that 
education should be improved and extended in order to meet 
the advancing wants of the age ; and, above all, that the whole 
should be touched by Christian influences : but this only 
makes me feel my incompetency the more." 

Governor Clifford was called on again, as the head of the 
Board of Overseers, to officiate at the induction of President 
Eliot^ on the 19th of October, 1869 ; and from his Address on 
that occasion the following passages will furnish a good 
illustration of the earnest spirit in which he spoke : — 

" When its venei-ated founders, the Fathers of New England, in- 
scribed the simple motto ' Veritas ' upon the college seal, and when 
their immediate successors enlarged its legend by the adoption of that 



15 

which it now boars, • Christo ot Kwlcsia',' as the wiitchwonl aii<l 
toivcu of its alU'^iaiice to the liighcst truth, they surely never dreamed 
— may the (hiy never dawn when their de.seen(hiiits shall declare — 
that tliere is an * irropressilile conflict ' helween the truths of elhi<-al 
and of physical science. Truth is one: — 'vital in every jjart, it 
cannot, hut hy annihilation, die ; ' and he is but poorly arnu'(l in its 
panoply of proof, who fears that any speculation, stuily, or research 
can establish a want of harmony between the revelations of God 
throujfh the sj)irit he has breathed into his noblest creation, and those 
he has imparted throut^h his imprints upon tlie insensate rocks. 

" I<lle, too, is the boast, or the dread, that, if such a conflict is to 
come, its predestined and ignoble issue will be, that the highest and 
most precious truth man can comprehend, and which ennobles liuman 
life and all its acquisitions and accomplishments with their chief dignity 
and value, shall surrender to the hasty generalizations and unwarranted 
and unchastened speculations of the presumptuous sciolist, whose 'mind 
has been subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.' AVere 
such to be the result of what is called the progress of science, as taught 
within these walls, that He is to be ignored to whose glory they were 
reared. — of what significance are these idle ceremonials, from which we 
might as well turn away, 'one to his farm, and another to his merchan- 
dise,' contenting ourselves only with the reflection, that, like the beasts 
that perish, we can ' eat and drink, for to-morrow we die' ? 

"In the progress of what is complacently called the 'advanced 
thought of New England,' and it may be at no distant day, there 
doubtless will be waged a conflict of opinion of the highest import to 
the cause of truth and the welfare of the race. Whenever it comes, 
Harvard College can hold no subordinate place among the institutions 
of the country, in whose armories must be forged the weapons with 
which it will be fought. Her friends can have no misgivings as to the 
position she will occujjy on such a field. Her great influence can never 
be arrayed on the side of those whose arrogant self-conceit can find no 
higher object of worship than the pretentious intellect of man, — to- 
day, asserting its own omnipotence ; to-morrow, ' babbling of green 
fields,' as its possessor sinks beneath the turf that covers them, to min- 
gle with his kindred clod ; — of those whose misty speculations shut 
out the life-giving rays of the ' Star of Bethlehem,' and who, with 
puny but presumptuous hand, would — 

' hanii a curtiun on the East, 
Tl>e dayUght from tlic world to keep.* " 



16 

Governoi' Clifford was, also, one of the original Board of 
Trustees of the great Education Fund, established by the 
munificence of George Peabody, for the impoverished and 
desolated States of the South ; and I can bear witness to the 
zeal and assiduity with which he attended their meetings, 
and entered into all their discussions. No one was more 
faithful to that noble Trust, and no one will be more affection- 
ately and gratefully remembered by all who were associated 
with him in its labors and responsibilities. 

But the health of our lamented friend had more than once 
during these latter years given warning that he needed re- 
laxation. Indeed, there is the best authority for saying, that 
nothing but the earnest admonitions of his physician, and his 
own consciousness of waning strength, had originally induced 
him to renounce the professional career in which he had won 
so distinguished a reputation, and to which he was so ardently 
attached. The efforts and excitements of the court-room had 
more than once been followed by serious prostration, and he 
had reluctantly yielded to the necessity of exchanging them 
for the quieter, though hardly less arduous and responsible, 
duties of presiding over a great business corporation. But in 
the spring of 1873 he was compelled to abandon all occupa- 
tion, and fly to the salubrious airs of Florida. In the spring 
of 1875, a visit to Europe was recommended to him, and he 
sailed for Liverpool on the 24th of April of that year. It 
was his first visit to the Old World, and, though he prudently 
denied himself to the attentions and hospitalities which were 
abundantly offered to him in London, he went through the 
laborious round of sight-seeing, there and everywhere, with 
all the enthusiasm of his nature. I was in Europe myself at 
that time, and saw him more than once, and had frequent let- 
ters from him along his route. England and Scotland, France, 
Switzerland, and Northern Italy were traversed in the half- 
year's absence from home which he allowed himself. His 
family were with him, and he enjoyed every moment. As 



17 

he approaclied the limit whicli lie had assiixiiod to his absence, 
he was coni[)t'llcd id abandon all thoiij^ht ot" Ronio and Na- 
ples. A letter IVoni him, dati'd Florence, 1 Sept., 187.^, 
speaks of the strngglo it has cost him to give up seeing the 
Eternal City ; but adds that " he looks towards home with 
inlinitely more desire than towards Rome, Pompeii, or even 
the Holy J^and." 

"You were quite right," he proceeds, "in your judgment 
of Switzerland as the true Paradise of the American traveller. 
There is nothing to be compared with it ; and, if I were to 
be restricted to one view in Europe, it would be that mag- 
nificent combination of the grandeur of the Creator's works 
with the marvellous skill and geriius of man, which is ex- 
hibited in the audacious conception and wonderful execution 
of the road Ijuilt by Napoleon over the Pass of the 'Simplon.' 
Waldo Emerson once told me if he were to have but one day 
in Europe, it should be spent in the Square of St. Marc, in 
Venice. To me, interesting as Venice is, making one feel 
all the while as if he were in a dream, the great realities of 
the Alps are a thousand-fold more impressive ; and indeed 
the whole effect of my journeyings amongst those sublime 
exhibitions of Nature, and the myriad treasures of ancient and 
modern art Avhich I have had opened to me on every hand, 
has been to satisfy me that my tastes are better suited to the 
enjoyment of the works of Him, the great Artist and Archi- 
tect of the universe, than those of the most gifted of His 
children, wonderful and beautiful as they are." 

In less than six weeks from this date he had embarked at 
Liverpool, and he reached his native shores safely about the 
middle of November following. He felt, as he said, like a 
new man, and resumed his work without the interval of a 
day. On the 17tli of November he presided at the Annual 
Meeting of the Hoston and Providence Railroad Corporation, 
and made a felicitous address to the assembled stockholders, 
who had come together under the discouragement of a re- 



18 

dnced dividend. Among other things, he spoke of the new 
Station-house, in which they were assembled, as having been 
pronounced by a German architect, — who, after visiting the 
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, had come from Phila- 
delphia to Boston expressly for the purpose of inspecting 
it, — " the model railway station of the world." But his re- 
marks were rendered especially memorable by his declaration, 
that he was not only entirely satisfied that the dividend had 
been rightly reduced, but that he desired, if any reduction of 
the pay-roll of the road was to be made, that his own salary 
should be reduced first, and the wages of the workmen last, 
or not at all. He struck a true chord, and kindled a respon- 
sive note all along the line. Had such an example been 
followed in other parts of the country, it is not impossible 
that some of the deplorable outbreaks of later days might 
happily have been averted. No wonder that, when his 
funeral took place a few weeks afterwards, not a few of 
the flowers heaped upon his coffin were the offerings of the 
employes of the Road, and that one of them was heard ex- 
claiming, " I would give every dollar I have in the world for 
the Governor." 

Before Governor Clifford embarked for Europe, he had 
declined appointments as United States Minister both to 
Russia and to Turkey, which had been successively oifered 
to him by the Administration at Washington. He had, 
however, previously accepted an appointment as United 
States Commissioner on the Fislieries under the Arbitration 
Treaty with Great Britain, — now at last in session at 
Halifax, — and had always contemplated fulfilling that ap- 
pointment. 

But his work was ended, public and private. Indeed, he 
had hardly reached his home in New Bedford, after a brief 
stay in Boston where he arrived, and was but just beginning 
to receive from his old friends and neighbors the tokens of 
welcome which had awaited him, when a disease of the heart, 



19 

wliicli liad givoM niystciions indications in former years, was 
now unniistakalily nKinifeslcd. A very few weeks sufficed to 
brinijf it to a crisis; and on the indinini;' of tlie lid of .January, 
187(», Ins death was announced. 

Happily for liim, and for all to whom he was so dear, he 
was ])ermitted to die in liis native land, under his own roof, 
surrounded by life-loiiL;' friends and a devoted family. Not 
Avithout hopes of recovery to the last, lie was yet ready for 
the sunnnons when it came ; and no murmur ever escaped his 
lips at the dispensations of the kind Providence in which he 
had always lovingly trusted. 

Cordial tributes to his career and character were paid by 
the Legislature of Massachusetts, then in session; by the Bar 
of the Southern District ; by the various associations with 
which he was connected ; by the Overseers of the University ; 
by the railroad corporation over which he had presided ; and 
by the public journals throughout the country.* His funeral 
was attended by a great concourse of his friends and fellow- 
citizens at New Bedford, on the following Thui-sday. 

Thus truly did he fulfil the idea contained in a letter 
written by him, just as I was embarking to return from Eu- 
rope, in September, 1868: " But all our journeyings, whether 
on one side or both sides of the ocean, are only carrying us 
all to that home, which at the farthest is not distant from 
any one of us." 

Governor Clifford's life had not been altogether unclouded. 
In his earlier years he had many sorrows. Any one who 
shall visit the stately granite Monument which has just been 
placed over his remains in the New Bedford cemetery, will 
observe at its side the humbler stones which tell of the death 
of four children, — two daughters and two sons, — all cut off 
at a very early age. On the stones which mark the graves 
of the little boys, are inscribed, " Edward Everett Clifford," 
and " Robert VVinthrop Clifford." 

• See Appendix. 
8 



20 

I should hardly be pardoned, were I to omit from this 
cursory record of his life an extract from his touching letter 
of 29 August, 1843, informing me of the death of this latter 
child : — 

" My DEAR Friend, — Your heart I know will bleed for me when 
I announce to you that your sweet little namesake has left us for a 
better world. We have added another to the angel throng ; and 
although that world is as real to me as the earth upon which I tread, 
and the blessed existence of my precious flock is as certain as my own, 
it has been an inexpressibly bitter trial to part with my only boy. I 
had indulged in high hopes for him, and he gave all the promise that 
infancy could give that his future career would justify them all. He 
was the sweetest tempered, the most equable and placid, of all my 
children ; and in his beautiful expression of countenance and his finely- 
formed head we could not but discover the germ of a rich maturity. 
With his name, too, I need not say, were associations which increased 
and strengthened the interest and hopes with which I looked forward 
to his future years. It has not infrequently occurred to me that, if I 
should be called away from him before his education for this life's 
duties had been completed, your interest in him would have given him 
the advantage of your counsel and direction ; and that, for his father's 
sake and his own, you would have so watched his progress as that he 
should bear that name through the trials and temptations of youth with 
honor. But, alas, for my desolate hearthstone, — not alas for him, — 
he has exchanged our guidance for His who will ' lead him by the 
still waters ' of Paradise, and ' make him to lie down in its green pas- 
tures ' by the side of those dear ones who have already welcomed him 
to their eternal home." 

These early sorrows, however, were abundantly compen- 
sated by the blessings of his later life ; and, at his death, he 
left tln^ee sons, — all of them graduates of Harvard, — and 
two daughters, to comfort their mother, and to do honor to 
his own memory. 

I can close this brief Memoir with nothing more appropriate 
than the following passage from the tribute paid to Governor 
Clifford by a distinguished statesman of Virginia (the Hon. 
Alexander H. H. Stuart), when his death was announced at 



21 

the iViimiiil MfC'tiiiL;' of tliu l*i';il)0(ly Trustees, iit llie White 
Sulphur Si»riM;j;s, iu Virginia, hist August: — 

" It ri'(|uin\s IK) effort of luciiioiy, on our part, to recall his iimiily 
figure aud noble face. They are indelihly imprinted on our minds and 
hearts. Nature had so moulded his form and features as to give the 
world assurance of his admirahlc character. There was a (piiet dignity 
and grace in every movement, and his countenance heamcd with intel- 
ligence and benignity. To a mind of great power he united a heart 
which throbbed with generous imi)ulses, and a hapjiy facility of expres- 
sion which gave a peculiar charm to his conversation. There was a 
frankness in his bearing and a genial urbanity about him, which at 
once commended confidence and inspired good-will. Every one who 
approached him felt attracted by a species of personal magnetism, 
which was irresistible. 

" When last autumn, in New York, I was urging that the present 
session of our Board should be held here, in the mountains of Vir- 
ginia, one of the great pleasures which I anticipated was the oppor- 
tunity which it would present of introducing Governor Clifford to 
my Virginia friends. I felt sure that they would share my ftivorable 
regard for him, and thus a new link of fraternity would be added to 
the chain of memories which unite Massachusetts and Virginia. But 
it has pleased an All-wise Providence to ordain that it should be 
otherwise ; and all that I can now do is, on behalf of the people of 
Virginia and of the South, to tender to Massachusetts the assurance 
of their profound sympathy in the loss which she has sustained iu the 
untimely death of her distinguished son ! " 



APPENDIX. 



Telegram from the State Department of the United States. 

Washington, Jnn. 3, 1870. 
The finnouncement of tlie death of your most excellent father is 
received with the dee[)est regret. The country loses a good and pure 
man. The President tenders his sincere condolence. Be assured of my 
sympathy and sorrow. 

Hamilton Fish, Secretary of Slate. 
Charles W. Ci.iffoud, Esq., New Bedford. 



Extract from Governor Ulceus Inaugural Message to the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts^ Jan. 6, 1876. 

Nor can you or I forget that, even now, the earth is receiving to its 
bosom the remains of a past Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth, 
■who embodied in his character and exemplified in his life all that we 
recognize as highest and noblest in the name of Christian, and scholar, 
statesman, gentleman, and friend. 



Proceedings of the Executive and Legislative Departments 
of the Govermnent of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts^ 
in regard to the Death of Ux- Governor John II. Clifford. 

EXKCDTIVE DkPARTMENT, 

BosTits, Jiin. 5, IHTtJ. 
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives. 

It becomes my painful duty to annuunco to the L<gi>!ature tho 
death of E.\-Governor John II. Ci.ii'KOun, which occurred at New 
Bedford on the second day of the present month. 



24 

The' funeral service will be performed to-morrow, January 6. 

I respectfully recommend the Legislature, by some appropriate 
action, to express their high ajipreciation of the great personal merit, 
and the able and distinguished public services, of that eminent citizen ; 
their profound sense of the loss which the State and the country have' 
sustained by his death, and their great respect for his character and 
memory. 

Wm. Gaston. 

In Senate, Jan. 5, 1876. 

Read and referred to a joint special committee, to consist of three 
on the part of the Senate, with such as the House may join. 

And Messrs. Crane, Sargent, and Wing were appointed on the part 
of the Senate ; and Messrs. Kellogg of Pittsfield, Kimball of Boston, 
Pierce of Milton, Noble of Westfield, Wetlierell of Worcester, Morissey 
of Plymouth, Gargan of Boston, and Barker of New Bedford were 
appointed on the part of the House. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
In Senate, Jan. 5, 1876. 
The Committee appointed to consider the communication from His 
Excellency the Governor respecting the death of Ex- Govern or John 
H. Clifford, report in part as follows : — 

That a Committee of the Legislature, consisting of four members of 
the Senate and eight of the House, be appointed to attend the funeral 
of the late John Henry Clifford, Ex-Governor of the Commonwealth, 
which will take place at New Bedford, on Thursday, the sixth day of 
January. 

And the Committee ask further time to complete their report. 

In Senate, Jan. 5, 1876. 
Accepted. And Messrs. Sargent, Ayres, Belcher, and Wing were 
appointed on the part of the Senate ; and Messrs. Fairbanks of Fall 
River, Noble of Westfield, Babson of Gloucester, Wethei-ell of Wor- 
cester, Morissey of Plymouth, Barker of New Bedford, Gargan of 
Boston, and Paul of Boston, on the part of the House. 

In Senate, Jan. 11, 1876. 
The Committee on the death of Ex-Governor Clifford, to whom 
was referred the communication of His Excellency the Governor, report 
the accompanying resolutions : — 



lit'solee'l. That in tlip doatli of John Ih'iiry Clifford, Ex-CIovonior of 
Massachusetts, the Commonwealth has lost one of its most useful, 
aceom|>lishe(l, ami distinguished citizens. Whether his varied and well- 
traineil powers were exerted in tho cause of education or in the execution 
of the laws, or exercisetl in dihate in either branch of the Le^jislature ot 
this State, or tested in the resimnsible Executive duties devolving upon 
him as the Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, — in all the positions 
of public trust he so worthily tilled, he illustrated the ardor of his 
patriotism, the vigor of his intellectual powers, and added to the fame 
of the State which now mourns his death and honors his memory. 

Jicsoh'id, That his private, no less than his public, life bore testimony 
to the wisdom, strength, beauty, and grace of his personal character; 
dignified without austerity, firm and decided in liis convictions, yet 
courteous and deferential to those of his associates, with a power to 
apply his varied ajttainments to the practical affairs of business life, — 
he added to the prosperity and happiness of his fellow-citizens by his 
services and counsel ; and thus exemplified the peculiar rej)\il)lican sim- 
plicity of our systems of government, which recognize all public jjositions 
as temporary trusts, conferring lu)nor only upon those who by wise and 
pure administration prove themselves worthy the no less honorable 
duties of private life. 

Jiesolrttl, That we tender our sympathy to the family of the deceased, 
and that a coi)y of these resolutions be forwarded to them. 

In Sesatk, Jan. 11, 1876. 
Adopted. Sent down for concurrence. 

S. N. GiFFOUD, Clerk. 

House of Representatives, Jan. 11, 1876. 
Concurred. 

Geo. a. Harden, Clerk. 



Tribute of the Trustees of the Peahody Education Fund. 

Anxcal Meeting, 
White Sulphur Springs, August 5, 1870. 
The following resolutions, proposed by Hon. A. II. II. Stuart, of 
Virgiiii.i, and seconded by Gen. Richard Taylor, of Louisiana, were 
unanimously adopted : — 

liesolverl, That we have heard with profound sorrow of the death, 
since our la.st Annual Meeting, of lion. John II. ClilVord, one of our 
original Trustees, appointed by Mr. George Peabody to superintend the 



26 



administration of his munificent donations to the cause of education in 
the Southern States. We feel that in the death of Governor CUfford we 
have lost the services and co-operation of one of the most useful, zealous, 
and efficient members of our body, and that we have been deprived of 
the society of a gentleman whose eminent talents, liberal attainments, 
dignified and affable manners, and genial temper were sources of con- 
stant pleasure to all who had the good fortune to be thrown into intimate 
association with him. As Legislator, Attorney- General, and Governor 
of Massachusetts, he gave abundant evidence of his wisdom, legal and 
administrative ability, and enlightened patriotism. As a sagacious, 
energetic, and public-spirited citizen he contributed largely to the de- 
velopment of the material interests of his native State. And in his 
private life there was a continual exhibition of those manly virtues and 
attractive graces, which dignify and adorn the character of the Christian 
gentleman. 

His seat at our Board has been left vacant. The places that have 
known him will know him no more. He has gone to enjoy the reward 
of a well-spent life. All that is left to us is the memory of his talents, 
his eminent public services, and his many virtues. 

We bow with humble resignation to the will of Him in whose hands 
are the issues of life and death, and with sorrowful hearts we now desire 
to inscribe on our records this imperfect tribute of reverence and affec- 
tion for the memory of our deceased associate and friend. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of this Board be instructed to transmit 
to the family of Governor Clifford a copy of the foregoing resolution, 
with the assurance of the heartfelt sympathy of all its members with 
them in their sore bereavement. 

A true copy of record. 

George Peabodt Russell, Secretary. 



Ti'ihute of the Overseers of Harvard University, Jan. 26, 1876. 

In the death of our late associate, John H. Clifford, we recognize 
the interruption of an honorable, useful, and happy life. Born in 
another State, he attained the highest official station in our Common- 
wealth ; educated iu another university, he presided for many years 
over the Overseers of Harvard ; trained to the law, he reached its 
high honors a quarter of a century before he retired from practice, to 
gain equal precedence iu another field of labor ; trusted with high 
public offices, he held in private social station an equal rank ; and 



27 

whetluM' in j)ul»li(' or in j)rivate, lu; liclil no plaoe wliicli he diil not 
utlctiuutfly lill. Adininistriiiij; tlii' allairs of the Coiunioriwcaltli, or 
tilt' liiisiness of liis corporution, liu was wise in counsel, conservative in 
aclioii, skilful in dealiiijj with nimi. Presidiiij^ in the Senate, or in this 
rmanl, we well know his tact, his courte'^y, his impartiality. In his 
profession, to the strength of a sound mind in a sound body he did not 
disdain to add the grace of clear expression and of silver speech. As 
Attorney-General, he gave a dignity to the ofliee of puhlic prosecutor 
whieh in his hands partook of the nature of judicial service. In pri- 
vate life, welcome at every board, ho welcomed his friends to his own 
with a broad, free hospitality. Success waited upon desert throughout 
his life. As a public man no malice assailetl, no envy touched him. 
In his profession, the successful prosecution of a great criniiruil in a 
cause cclebre gave him a name at home and abroad. In his later busi- 
ness career, he left the corporation which he had in charge at the head 
of its kind in prosperity, and gave to our city an ornament which may 
stand as a monument alike of his good taste and his good judgment. 
His grace of manner, the expression of a kind and genial nature, 
attracted hosts of friends whom his real worth retained ; and, in the 
sacred circle of home, love was given and returned without stint or 
limit. He carried into public and business life the high sense of honor 
which is too often left at the home threshold ; and the State-house, the 
Court-house, and the Railroad felt its presence and its influence. 

Society has lost in him a noble gentleman, the State a useful citizen, 
this Board an honored member, and many of us a dear friend. 



Tribute of the Boston and Providence Railroad Corporation. 

At a meeting of the Directors of the Boston and Providence Kail- 
road Corporation, called for Wednesday, January 12, 187 G, owing to 
the death of the Honorable John Hexuy Clikfoud, the late President 
of the Company, which occurred suddenly at his home in New Bedford, 
on Sunday morning, January 2d, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, 
the following resolutions were adopted, and ordered to be entered upon 
tlio records. The acting President was requested to send a copy to 
Mr. Clifford's family. 

In the death of their President, his associate Directors recognize 
the loss to the eornn)iuiity — in which he had held so prominent and 
honorable a position during a peculiarly active and useful life — of a 

I 



28 

distinguished chief magistrate ; of a pure, able, and eloquent public 
servant, in the Senate and the forum ; of a valued citizen ; and of a 
most genial, cultivated, and courteous gentleman. 

His presence will be missed from the academic exercises and advis- 
ing council of our neighboring university, of which he was an adopted 
and favorite son. and whose honors he so greatly valued ; from the list 
of the loyal living sons of his own cherished Alma Mater ; and from 
the Board of Trustees who were charged with the liberal educational 
bequest of the late George Peabody. 

The grief of the house of mourning for its beloved head is known 
but too well. 

The general Government, whose proffers of diplomatic life he felt 
obliged to decline, the Commonwealth and the Bar, with many learned 
bodies of which he was a member, have already offered their tributes 
to the memory of Mr. Clifford; but, as intimately associated with him 
in his official position as President of this Corporation, we wish to 
make some simple record of the attachment and bereavement of every 
person connected with it. 

And it is therefore — 

Resolved, That, by the death of President Clifford, the Stockholders 
of the Boston and Providence Railroad Corporation have lost the ser- 
vices of one who gave of the best years of his life to their interests ; 
and during whose administration, marked as it was by enterprise, dis- 
cretion, and a conservative liberality, the prospei'ity of the road was 
so conspicuous. 

Resolved, That the Directors, Officers, and Employes have lost an 
ever-thoughtful and considerate friend and judicious adviser, towards 
whom they held feelings, not only of high respect and esteem, but of 
strong personal and affectionate regard. 

Resolved, That in behalf of those who for so many years were of 
President Clifford's official family, — Superintendents Folsom and Chace, 
Mr. Treasurer Torrey, Messrs. Morrill, Daily, and Davis, — and in behalf 
of all the servants of the Corporation, including their own body, the 
Directors would seek to express to Mrs. Clifford, her sons and daughters, 
their deep sympathy and sorrow in this time of affliction. 

Henry A. Whitney, 
George W. Hallet, 
Thomas P. I. Goddakd, 
William R. Robeson, 
Francis M. Weld, 
Joseph W. Balch, 

Direct 07-s. 
Boston, January 12, 1876. Winslow Warren, ClerL. 



29 



Tribute of the Bar of the County of Bristol, MaaxachuHetts. 

Ni:\v Bkdkokd, Jan. 0, 1876. 
lloii. (Jr.ouoK INLvRSTON, District Attorney, j)ri'.sente(l to the Court 
tho following resolutions of the Bristol Comity I>:ir: — 

Upon the decease of the IIou. JoilN Henry Cliffoud, it is by tho 
Bar of Bristol County — 

Resolved, That, while we are saddened by th(; allliotion which has 
removed from our sight our most eminent brother and leader, our recol- 
lection of his profes-sional career affords the highest satisfaction. His 
love of the law, as the chosen pursuit of his life, was sincere, ardent, 
controlling, and unabated. His ability was uuiiuestioned in every de- 
partment of his profession. His learning was ample and his skill 
adequate to every exigency. The tone of his practice, whether in con- 
sultation or in his addresses to the jury or to the court, was always in 
accord with the purest ethics. His fidelity to his client and his cause 
was only equalled by his fidelity to the best standards of honor and duty. 
As tho law olHcer of the Commonwealth he added dignity to the olhce 
and distinction to the State. The fame which he attained as a lawyer 
was illustrated by the noblest qualities of personal character. 

Resolved, That the Members of the Bar attend his funeral services in 
the church, and that these resolutions be presented to the Superior 
Court, with the request that they be entered in its records, and that the 
Presiding Judge be moved to adjourn the Court for the day and join the 
Bar in attendance upon the funeral. 

Resolved, That a copy of the Resolutions, signed by the President and 
Secretary of this meeting, be communicated to the family of our 
departed friend and brother, as an expression of sympathy with them 
in their great bereavement. 



Resolutions adopted by the Boston Typographical Union. 

Whereas, in obedience to the Divine summons, an honored citizen 
and worthy son of Massachusetts, the lion. Joiix II. Clikfohd, — a 
tliorouj^hly practical friend of the workingman ; faithful to every trust 
confided in him ; and of the strictest integrity in all tl«e duties of 
life, — has been removed from the scene of his earthly labors. 
Therefore — 



30 

Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. John H. Cliiford, at a time 
when con'uj)tion and selfishness seem to have talven possession of all 
classes of society, the Members of the Boston Typographical Society 
deplore the loss of a true friend of the workingman ; and, while humbly 
bowing to the Divine decree, cannot but feel that his death at such a 
time is an irreparable loss. 

Resolved, That one of the last acts of Mr. Clifford — his resistance 
to a proposed reduction of the wages of the employes of the Boston and 
Providence Kailroad Company, of which he was the honored President, 
and his generous offer to surrender a portion of his own salary rather 
than the workmen of the road should suffer — is a noble and enduring 
monument to his memory. No stone is needed on which to record his 
epitaph. His name and good deeds are inscribed in the hearts of the 
workingman. 

Resolved, That the Members of this Society tender their respectful 
sympathies to the family of the deceased in their bereavement. 

Boston, Jan. 29, 1876. 



